all things are resolved into water
All things are from water and all things are resolved into water.
Greek natural philosopher Thales (625–547 BC) says and captures my (scientific) heart, since water is one of my favorite research objects. Most of my lucid moments I spend doing experiments with water. To be precise: I'm working with bottled mineral water to find out whether really all things resolve in water.
I'm involved in the research field of endocrine disruption, that is situated in between the traditional areas of toxicology, epidemiology, medicine, chemistry and ecology. It's dealing with the effects of man-made chemicals on the (reproductive) health of humans or wildlife.
So-called Endocrine Disruptors, like the notorious Bisphenol A, are synthetic chemicals that interfere with the hormonal signaling in our bodies. Most of the scientists working with Endocrine Disruptors believe that these chemicals therefore cause adverse health effects on reproductive, developmental and even neuronal functions.
I'm with them. But that's not why I started this blog. As I said, I did some studies on mineral water, that is (at least in Europe) nowadays very popular to carry around and drink everywhere. Doing my master thesis at university I was playing around with a simple in vitro system to test for hormonal activity caused by estrogens or estrogen-like compounds.
I modified the experimental design to test water samples and started testing the mineral water I was drinking at that time. It was a fun-experiment. I didn't expect to find anything, but guess what: I detected a strong estrogenic activity in my mineral water (which I stopped drinking immediately, as you might understand).
Since that first experiment, I tested dozens of different mineral waters in hundreds of experiments. The results are astonishing (some might say frightening): Most of the bottled mineral waters I tested are contaminated with synthetic estrogens. Moreover we found evidence that the hormonal contamination is coming from the plastic bottles. Thales is right: all things are resolved in water, especially things leaching from plastic packagings!
Collecting all these data, I'm on the way to publish these results. That's why I'm blogging now. The contamination of a basic thing like drinking water with environmental estrogens is of special interest for public health. I know that my data may cause public concern. And scientific controversy.
With this blog, I want to illustrate my private point of view concerning endocrine disruption in general and my work on mineral water in particular. Moreover I want to take a critical look on how public is dealing with the topic. Let's follow the thrilling way of a debate between public and science, uncertainty and knowledge, precaution and profit. Thales would like it for sure!
Greek natural philosopher Thales (625–547 BC) says and captures my (scientific) heart, since water is one of my favorite research objects. Most of my lucid moments I spend doing experiments with water. To be precise: I'm working with bottled mineral water to find out whether really all things resolve in water.
I'm involved in the research field of endocrine disruption, that is situated in between the traditional areas of toxicology, epidemiology, medicine, chemistry and ecology. It's dealing with the effects of man-made chemicals on the (reproductive) health of humans or wildlife.
So-called Endocrine Disruptors, like the notorious Bisphenol A, are synthetic chemicals that interfere with the hormonal signaling in our bodies. Most of the scientists working with Endocrine Disruptors believe that these chemicals therefore cause adverse health effects on reproductive, developmental and even neuronal functions.
I'm with them. But that's not why I started this blog. As I said, I did some studies on mineral water, that is (at least in Europe) nowadays very popular to carry around and drink everywhere. Doing my master thesis at university I was playing around with a simple in vitro system to test for hormonal activity caused by estrogens or estrogen-like compounds.
I modified the experimental design to test water samples and started testing the mineral water I was drinking at that time. It was a fun-experiment. I didn't expect to find anything, but guess what: I detected a strong estrogenic activity in my mineral water (which I stopped drinking immediately, as you might understand).
Since that first experiment, I tested dozens of different mineral waters in hundreds of experiments. The results are astonishing (some might say frightening): Most of the bottled mineral waters I tested are contaminated with synthetic estrogens. Moreover we found evidence that the hormonal contamination is coming from the plastic bottles. Thales is right: all things are resolved in water, especially things leaching from plastic packagings!
Collecting all these data, I'm on the way to publish these results. That's why I'm blogging now. The contamination of a basic thing like drinking water with environmental estrogens is of special interest for public health. I know that my data may cause public concern. And scientific controversy.
With this blog, I want to illustrate my private point of view concerning endocrine disruption in general and my work on mineral water in particular. Moreover I want to take a critical look on how public is dealing with the topic. Let's follow the thrilling way of a debate between public and science, uncertainty and knowledge, precaution and profit. Thales would like it for sure!
m a r t i n - 15. Jan, 09:54
